Advancement in communication technology has made it possible for a user to avail services like mobile TV, E-commerce, video calling, online gaming, multimedia applications, and the like, provided by a service provider over a communication network. Implementation of high speed network technologies has made it possible for service providers to offer such services to the user. The user, through various communication devices, such as laptops, computers, desktops, smart phones, PDA's, and the like, may enjoy the services offered by the service provider over one or more communication networks, such as Ethernet, wireless local area network (WLAN), local area network (LAN), and other similar networks. Such services provided by the service provider usually involve real-time data transfer over the communication network and may thus require high bandwidth for their entire duration of operation to ensure smooth operation.
Some applications and services however are delay sensitive and thus require certain minimum connection speed in order to function efficiently. For example, certain E-commerce transactions over the web are sensitive to network connection and require continuous connectivity to the network for successful completion of the transaction. To ensure that satisfactory services are provided to the user, the service provider adopts several measures to provide reasonable quality of service (QoS) to the user and may charge the user accordingly.
Typically, the service providers classify the users into different classes based on an agreement between the service provider and the user. Based on the class, the service provider may ascertain a minimum level of QoS for the user and provides the services accordingly. Ascertaining the minimum level of QoS provided by the service provider assures the user of certain minimum level of quality, such as connectivity speed as data traffic for the user is routed based on the level of QoS associated with the class of the user. For example, a user enlisted in a top priority class will be offered more bandwidth as the level of QoS associated with the user will be attributed by high bandwidth as compared to a user enlisted in a lower priority class.
Ascertaining different levels of QoS for users helps in efficient management and allocation of network resources, thereby considerably reducing delays in routing data traffic over the communication network. However, allocation of network resources, such as channel bandwidth, processor, and routers based on the classes associated with the user may affect the user's experience as certain user applications may not be able to obtain sufficient resources. For example, a user enlisted in the lower priority class might not be able to run some application that requires high bandwidth as the communication network may not be able to provide bandwidth higher than the bandwidth designated for the level of QoS associated with the lower priority class. Allocation of the network resources based on the class of the user may thus affect the flexibility in connection speed provided to the user as the communication network may not be able to offer more bandwidth than allocated to the user. The user may thus either have to frequently request the service provider for a change in the class or use applications having bandwidth requirement corresponding to the user's class. Frequent change in class of the user, however, may not be feasible for the service provider as it would require re-allocation of network resources which may be a cumbersome process.